Lethal Target (1999) Movie Review

Sometimes I think I’m just a glutton for punishment. Take my DVD buying habits as a prime example. The DVD “Lethal Target” is why I hate buying movies I have never heard of, starring people I have never seen, and showcasing a box cover that looks much too good for a film this obscure. The film stars CC Costigan as Nikki Savage, a convict who gets a chance to shave some years off her sentence (she’s doing time for killing a bad cop, according to her) by doing some dirty work for the warden at her prison. The prison, incidentally, is some kind of mining base called Titan, or was it Titus? It doesn’t really matter, does it?

Nikki is sent to a rogue spaceship that has been taken over by a doctor (Kim Dawson) experimenting in sex; Nikki is to retake control, and if she can’t, the ship will be destroyed with her on it! Although I’m confused why the DVD’s back cover claims she’s a “security officer” (actually, it says “sexy security officer”) who must save a space station from an alien infestation. I just hate it when back cover text lies.

On the plus side, it’s good to know even the Canadians are capable of making terrible B-movies. “Lethal Target” was created as a cheapy sci-fi film that uses stock footages for its space locations and very fake-looking sets for its interiors. Its biggest asset is its leading lady, CC Costigan, who is fabulously beautiful and is willing to go nude for the sake of, ahem, her art. There’s no surprise that the film relies on Costigan and co-star Kim Dawson (a veteran of the erotic thrillers of the ’90s) to show as much skin as possible, while trying their best to act in the process.

It goes without saying that the acting is laughable, but that’s to be expected, and so I was neither surprised nor terribly irked. The plot of “Lethal Target” is quite silly (again, no surprise). Dawson’s Dane was somehow involved in a time-traveling experiment that went wrong, with the result being that she is now obsessed with getting everyone onboard her ship to become, uh, sexual partners. Apparently it’s some kind of new religion to her, and she’s so obsessed with it that she spends much of her screentime lounging in bed with two attractive females groping her. Hey, I could think of worst ways to spend a day!

Along the way, there’s some guy in a plastic suit running around as an alien (take a look at the cover) planting seeds that bursts out of people’s chests. In-between the sexual encounters (the straight and bi kind, which offers the film’s only real reason to watch: gratuitous nudity), writer Chris Hyde throws in a subplot about an alien virus trying to take over the ship. Or some such nonsense. Just think “Alien” but with a really low budget.

The science ranges from ludicrous to just plain silly. For instance, the prison warden injects our heroine with a computer chip via a syringe that allows him to instantaneously communicate with her through vast distances (no need for communications satellites, natch) and which also acts as her own personal supercomputer, complete with database that can access anything she needs. Of course, this begs the question: If things are so sophisticated in the future, why is everyone still carrying M16s and Beretta handguns? Aren’t there supposed to be lasers or something?

Besides the DVD having no extras to speak of (not even a simple menu with scene selection!), the film comes in full screen version only. Mind you, not that I think a widescreen is going to change anything, but it’s always nice to have the choice.

“Lethal Target” is what it is: a shoddy story with amateurish acting, props, stock footages, and pretty women. CC Costigan has some nice tongue-in-cheek one-liners, but she’s hopelessly involved in a movie that screams “cheap” and “bad” from the first to last reel. Costigan is attractive, but it’s going to take more than her pretty face and obvious spunk to make this stinker even remotely respectable.

Then again, who says it was meant to be respectable in the first place? At least it delivers what it promises.